My research does not really extend much past reading about what Walter and Tony have been up to.

I think our plan is to head to Irkutsk then on to the Western BAM and north from Tynda to Yakutsk. From there we will go to Magadan hopefully via the summer road.

If it all plans out we should have all of August and September to explore the area (and chill out! hopefully not literally )

Our Land Rover may be a bit battered by then so we will see how that is.

Tony - Do you have anymore info on that gravel road from Irkutsk? I couldn't see it on OSM and couldn't trace it on GE. It would help cut off that corner to Bratsk unless you think it is worth the visit? even that section of the BAM?

Also, having ridden these roads what would be your views on taking a well equipped Land Rover across the BAM and ROB? I know some people from the UK were mean't to try it this year but got delayed, not sure where they are now, but its a bit late in the year for them to try anything now.

G

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The Zhigalavo Road (also by that name on the map) is on OSM. Maybe you need to set it on the highest magnification in Mapsource and look at it at less than 500 meter zoom? I added it to the updated sketch in post number 8.

I'm also interested in your opinion of the surmountability of the "obstacles" (rivers/mudholes) on a lightweight dirtbike (160 kg incl fuel and luggage) rather than a fat Landy ) on the Old Summer Road to Magadan. Clearly on those sections I won't ride solo.

cheers
Chris

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Got it, my apologies. I was scanning to close to Baikal. viewing online. Not downloaded it yet as I want to wait till nearer our departure so its more upto date. Road Looks like a winner

G

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Also subscribed, for the Mongolia stuff anyway.

I don't recall if Walter or Tony mentioned such a place, but we were on the RoB with a guy from Tynda, and he said that along the BAM west of Tynda there is a place with giant sand dunes--has anyone heard of this/been there?

There were sand dunes and pine trees (not your normal Siberian ones but more like the darker Scots Pines) east of Taksimo. The 'road' was quite sandy for 100km or so but quite firm, no doubt because of recent heavy rain which got us looping round pools all the way.
Looking around the surrounding terrain I would describe it as more 'grown over sandy dunes' sooner than giant dunes, like on Walter's latest ride!

I recall sand pits/quarrys immediately east of town - where we fortunately met a most helpful lady who not only escorted us in finding somewhere to sleep but also collected us next day and ferried us about town to find repairers for bikes, boots and replacement batteries for my remote alarm immobiliser, and spare, that failed and left my bike immobilised that very morning!

EDIT - I have just recalled Michael Rej enjoying them on his 'BAM curtailed" SyberiaMongolia2009 expedition. The dunes on this long clip are near Chara, which we went through but did not see, there was even some tarmac around Chara!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM7rIRpv4uo

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hmmm, I think you're doing this stretch of road a disservice. Most of the road I though was quite nice, although not challenging. Very good gravel road, nice scenery, hardly any traffic. The only bad part was from about Susuman to Magadan, where the truck traffic really seemed to increase.

To avoid this stretch you can take the Tinkinsky Trakt (from Bolshevik to Palatka), but it was closed this year because a bridge was out. I would definitely take it if the road is open.

send me your e-mail address and I'll send you a road book I did with distances, where to find fuel, etc.

As far as I know, only one group of bikers (the crazy Russians) did the entire old summer road this year, I have not heard of anyone else doing it.

Hi Tom
Sent you a PM with my email. Thanks for the roadbook. My wording does seem "disservice-ful". A much better description is at ADVrider - View Single Post - Siberian Extreme 2010 - Back for More You know it better than me as you've ridden it. I was trying to remember stuff through the fog of my fueled mind when we chatted in Moscow.

Apart from the Crazy Russians you mentioned, who else has recently (in the last 3 years?) ridden the Old Summer Road via Tomtor (Walter's section 7 in the above link)? I think Walter and Sherri-Jo did it? Which route did Dan and Ed take this year? Walter and Tony on their trip?

cheers
Chris

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I think Walter rode it with Sherri Jo and Tony (the year before), but Tony or Walter would need to confirm. Not sure about Dan and Ed, although Walter did mention a couple of Brits that could not cross at Kyubeme, but that rode to Tomtor from the eastern end of the road, maybe it was them.

I think there were also some other groups/individuals that did it in 2010 and 2009, but Walter would be the best to ask.

In Yakustk I met an Aussie 4x4 couple that did the OSR in their truck, I am trying to find a link to their site, they showed some some pretty cool video showing road conditions.

I have not spoken with the Russians in detail, but apparently they only had problems with the water level at the beginning and the end (they hired a truck to get across at Kyubeme), but also that it should not be done alone, or maybe even in a pair (there were five of them), because of the sheer number of water crossings and bogs where you could get stuck. I should also mention that these guys are pretty hard core, and that it took them I think 4-5 days to do the OSR, including a maintainance day in Tomtor.

The track north if Zhilagalovo is fine graded gravel. A very enjoyable road.

RoB.
Any car, 2 or 4WD should have little difficulty on the Federal Road parts of the RoB network of roads and tracks. A 4WD would be needed once you get off that and some sections would probably be impassable even to them.
Much depends on the weather and amount of water lying about, not just rain but the quantity of the past winter's snow. When it eventually melts the permafrost below the surface stops water absorbtion so it just sits there slowly evaporating. Hence the whole area and all of northern Siberia, being so wet and muddy in summer and smooth zimniks - frozen ice tracks only passable in winter.

BAM (Western)
Different proposition!
Consider this - about 100 or 200km west of Taksimo we met Michael Rej coming the other way. He is probably Poland's most experienced 4x4 expedition leader having been organising and leading them and instructing for more than 15 years. A typical 'hard core' Polish adventurer - and at the top of his trade.
This time he was leading SyberiaMongolia 2009 - Syberia-Mongolia 2009 a two vehicle (Discovery and a Toyota something) trip to Mongolia. They were very well sponsored by many Polish and World brands and a Polish TV - so money equipping themselves with the most practical equipment was presumably not a problem.
They chose to do the western BAM as a diversion to relieve the monotony of the Trans Siberian Highway to their intended Mongolia turn off.

They eventually got through to Tynda but by then the vehicles were in such a bad state that their Mongolia aspirations (and the purpose of the trip) were curtailed and they had to work very hard just to get their vehicles back to Poland, not on trailers.

There are many of their clips if you do a YouTube search syberiamongolia as well as through their own WebSite above.

There are very steep railway embankments you must climb (and descend) to get over some rivers on the railway bridges (active with freight trains) - you will have to drive along the actual rails at times - many 'road' bridges were not even safe for a our single track light bikes - others we had to rebuild with timber to make just a single track for the bikes - others were partially or completely absent, requiring some very bumpy river crossings, dry and wet. And so on. And it will all have deteriorated further by 3 more Siberian winters by next summer.

And then there is the VITIM BRIDGE - something I personally never ever, EVER want to see again in this life (I am still sometimes kept awake at night thinking about it). Without that bridge I would dearly love to revisit the entire BAM but with a lighter bike and less stuff.

BAM (eastern section)
4 wheels? Forget it is my opinion - although I admit to knowing nothing of the full capabilities of 4x4s.

I am not trying to paint a picture to glorify out own exploits but giving honest opinions. Look at Michael Rej's BAM drive - and be aware of the atrition to the vehicles that he suffered, such that they barely got them home.

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This Russian guy described the dunes as being pretty big and impressive, although I'm not sure if if they are quite like Merzouga...

Apparently these dunes are not right on the BAM, but to the north a bit, and IIRC, you could not actually ride to them (you have to walk to the dunes themselves), although you could ride close enough to see them, or maybe they are even visible from the BAM.

I would be interested to hear if Walter has heard of, or laid eyes on, these (mythical) dunes?

He knew of them and mentioned them at the time as being nearby when we refulled at Chara (just north of the BAM from Noviy Chara that has no fuel).

But we were all getting long behind our generous flexible schedules and left with the comment "for another time".

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Tony,

Really appreciate your comments. With regards to the east I wasn't planning on after reading the ride report some time ago.

That expedition is reasonably well equiped, we wont be going with anything less. I found the full length of their video here: campusadventureteam's Channel - YouTube

That Toyota thing is a 200 series Land Cruiser. Would be interested to hear what was wrong with them that they struggled to carry on. The Cruiser looks very low (stock) so I imagine the underside got a bit of a kicking.

For the 4 wheelers steep banks are not a huge problem, railway bridges shouldn't be much of a problem, we crossed one in Senegal: https://www.facebook.com/#!/video/vi...50178618323306

Im mostly concerned with the bridges but more so the flow of the rivers. Depth isn't usually the problem, rate of flow is! I dont have much experience of fast flowing rivers so that TBH is what scares me most.

Like you said, its all dependant on the season/rainfall/snow. Lets hope 2013 is a good year and we dont have to tackle it as a single vehicle

G

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They are accessible from Stary CHara (Old Chara) ... where you have to go for fuel anyway.

I have even made it easy for you guys ... I have drawn in the access trails on OSM. Or ask any locals at Chara.

The dunes are a bit of a geological anomaly ... no-one knows how they got there. But they are there, only 6km I think it is from Chara. The dunes are the olive coloured blob on OSM next to Chara. There is a river crossing involved.

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Assuming you can get your car up and down the railway embankments, would you be allowed to cross the bridge in a slow car? A little bike can get across very quickly and if a "freight train a comin' " also get out of the way pdq.

Can a car fit across the Vitim Bridge?

Chris

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And I met one coming the other way. Fortunately I reached one of the 'refuge lay bys' with literally a second to spare!

Yes - look at the various videos on YouTube.

Here is the latest video - and fastest yet. All of about 40 minutes quicker than me. No one challenging my record?

1 minute 11 seconds.
Notice the clean central path on the timbers? Perhaps created by the apparent "hoardes" of motos attracted to this 'Everest' of bridges.

Sadly, it will be inevitable thatone day someone will go over the side. With the current and cold water the result is without doubt.

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